Wheel rims for vehicles are formed to connect a tire to an axle. Wheel rims may be formed to be decorative to enhance the appearance of a vehicle. Many wheel rims therefore have a shiny, mirror-like metal finish. In addition, wheel rims often vary in their surface contour and in their arrangement and form of cutouts.
During manufacture of wheel rims, the rims are polished to have the shiny finish by large and expensive purpose built machines. These machines can produce a high quality finish with a short cycle time using no manual labor. However, in the manufacture process, any particular rim type to be handled by the polishing machines will either be consistent over a large number of polishing jobs or will be selected from one a number of set styles produced. Therefore, little consideration need be given to the problems of polishing many different types of wheel rims.
During use, the surface finish of a rim deteriorates over time. For example, aluminum rims may oxidize and become gray and may become corroded, pitted, or scratched. Thus, vehicle owners may wish to polish the rims in order that the rims regain their shiny finish. When the wheel rims are formed of aluminum, such polishing may require treatment by a polishing head with a polishing compound. Since an automotive shop or vehicle cleaning facility may have to handle hundreds of different rims, the polishing head is generally hand held and operated manually by a person operator. This job is time consuming for a person, rendering it expensive and labor intensive. Further, manual polishing introduces the risk of damaging a rim surface and/or injury to a person and may produce an inconsistent result.